[Bob Cole]

[Frank Gothmann] ” we started doing all our backups on LTFS on a 300 dollar pc rather than going with a Macpro or a Mini with a 1.000 dollar TB breakout box.”

Interesting! How exactly did you set this up? I’ve seen this done as two-step process. Make one PC an LTO station (call it PC-LTO), write over the network to the PC-LTO’s hard drive, then let the PC-LTO write to its attached LTO at its leisure. Or, one-step: write over the network directly to the PC/LTO station. I assume that if you are using LTFS, you’re writing directly to the LTO over the network.

Currently, we backup up individual computers separately, with a combination of external hard drives and LTO. I love the idea of using a single LTO tape station to make regular backups of all (five) computers on our network. I don’t want to have to think about backups, because if I have to think about it, then one day I won’t think about it, and that will be the day a critical hard drive fails.

LTFS sounds very appealing, but I just wonder about the details. Tim’s white paper pointed out LTFS’s inability to span, for example.
On this forum, some bright people have mentioned that there is a difference between backups and archives. I wonder whether proprietary software (BRU PE, ArchiWare, Retrospect??) might be better for everyday, system-wide backups (for disaster recovery), and LTFS might be better for archiving completed projects.

Comments welcome! I need to replace our old LTO drive, and I want to set this up right, to carry us through the next several years.

Thanks!

Bob

[Bob Cole]

[Kevin Francis] “Their support is good but not fast- if you have an urgent issue you’re pretty much out of luck. “

Well, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Few of us have our own IT Department – we’re “it” so to speak. So, finding a solution with outstanding support is of paramount importance. That’s why I bought a CalDigit – at the time anyway, it seemed the best at support. And that is also why so many of us have bought AJA products. I would love to see a ranking of how well various companies “back up” their backup solutions.

Thanks for the warning about needing to learn Terminal commands. I’d just as soon spend that time getting better at After Effects. If I can avoid Terminal, I’d like to try to do that!

Thanks too, to Tim, for the very helpful white paper. The premise about support for LTFS is valid. (It reminds me of the classic investment advice: “Put ALL of your eggs in one basket – and watch that basket like a hawk.”) One of the big arguments in favor of LTFS is that an open standard does not depend on any one company’s support; but perhaps it is not such a bad idea to have one company solidly behind a product (unless that company goes belly-up, leaving you without support). I would place very low confidence on getting any support from HP. When I’ve succeeded in reaching the right person at HP, they’ve been excellent; but getting to that person has been problematic.

BRU PE looks pretty impressive, but it may be academic for me, as BRU PE is Mac only (right?). I’m currently in a mixed environment, but am leaning toward PC, due to the relative performance of the Mac Pro. I already own Retrospect Professional, which has been okay, though I’ve never really attempted anything sophisticated with it.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

The mystery deepens. I just tried reinstalling Encore 5.1, and the problem persists.

Even when I have Prefs set to NTSC, and import a video/audio pair of NTSC files as a timeline, the resulting timeline is 25 fps, 720×576, i.e. PAL.

When I import the NTSC video/audio pair as assets, and create a new timeline separately, that doesn’t help – the empty created timeline is PAL.

fwiw: I recently upgraded my OS to OSX 10.7.5, and have noticed that blank DVDs don’t show up in Finder. Could that be adding to the problem somehow?

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Fascinating! Thanks for the link, Ty!

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Your response made me realize another reason for being very careful with this. Although I agree with you about the expectation issue, I wonder whether there might be another side to it which makes it inadvisable, at least with a new client who doesn’t know you all that well.

I think it’s fine to write “n/c” if, as Walter said, it was due to your own mistake in estimating the job, and you present it almost as a “mea culpa.” But if part of your motivation in writing “n/c” is to make the client like you, or to show how generous YOU are, you may want to think twice. I think there is a strange quirk of psychology which causes the recipient of a benefit (client, in this case) to avoid the beneficiary. I know that on at least one occasion, when I felt that I had gotten too good a deal, it actually didn’t make me go back to the deal provider — there was something off-putting about the whole thing which made me want to avoid the favor-giver.

In fact, asking for a favor can be more effective than giving a favor.

There’s a great Benjamin Franklin anecdote about that. (This is my recollection of something I read years ago, so take it with a grain of salt.) When he was a young man, Franklin had a rather menial government job. There was a very powerful official who didn’t like him at all, and was likely to block young Ben’s progress. To ingratiate himself with this antagonist, Ben went to him, hat in hand, to ask for a favor (the loan of a certain book). He returned the book promptly, thanked his antagonist profusely – and from that point forward, this former enemy became his greatest protector.

If I write a “n/c” line down in future, I think I’ll make it clear why it took extra time, that it was a one-time thing, and that I appreciate the client’s patience — rather than leave any impression that I want the client to be grateful for my “generosity.”

fwiw.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Thanks all around for these interesting replies.

I like the idea of putting down an actual monetary value, then deleting it on the next line. That may be the solution I’m looking for – although I suspect that it should be a rare event. I don’t want to create an expectation of free work – just great work. And as Nick’s client’s remark shows, people can interpret our generosity and artistic commitment in a very unappreciative way!

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[Alister Chapman] “take the crispening down to -60 to increase sharpening in the low contrast parts of the image,”

First, let me say that I appreciate your research and writing. But sometimes I find it difficult to follow you. On your website you say both to take the crispening down to -60, and up to “+40 to +60”.

“turn the detail level down to -15 to prevent hair from getting too blocky and crispening to -60 to sharpen up low contrast edges.”

“For green screen and chroma key work I push crispening up to +40 to +60 as this helps me get a cleaner key, especially around subtle edges and hair.”

I’m trying to figure out what you are saying — can you amplify? You also point out that crispening doesn’t even apply when detail is turned off – that crispening merely sets the level at which detail is applied. And, that each chroma key situation presents its own challenge, and calls for a different picture profile.

Thanks!

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Thanks, Tim. I’ve taken your advice and will be installing an LTO-4 drive.

I would still like to learn more about using the cloud. I have FIOS, so it seems viable. Does anyone have a recommendation for a cloud service that would be right-priced for a small production company?

Thanks again.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Thanks Tim. For some reason that link didn’t work, but I’ll keep trying it – is there a way to search to find that page?

The drive is just over 4 years old. I see on eBay that I can get a “new” slide-in replacement for the drive (using my existing “toaster box” which turns it into an external drive) for under $700.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[Gerard Tay] “What the test shows is that if PPro is indeed using preview files on a same as source export, it does not decode and encode the preview file to the final format, otherwise the additional generation loss will show up in the test against the clip that was exported without using preview files. “

Thank you. This looks like valuable research. The only problem I have is that as a prospective PPro user, I found myself getting a bit confused. I’m sure it would be much clearer to me if I were a daily PPro editor, but right now I’m just lurking here, trying to get ready for the switch.

What is your bottom line recommendation as a “best practice” for exporting a top-quality render from PPro?

Bob C